The Trial of the Former Dean of Leningrad State University Nikolai Kornatovsky

Abstract

The article examines a series of events related to the criminal prosecution of Nikolai Kornatovsky, a prominent party historian, professor, and the former dean of the Faculty of History at Leningrad State University. Amidst the political purges of the 1940s and 1950s, echoing the “Leningrad Affair”, Kornatovsky was expelled from the party, dismissed from high administrative positions, and arrested in 1951 on false charges of anti-Soviet activities. The trial over Kornatovsky has been reconstructed on the basis of the documents of supervision proceedings revealed by the author and previously not used by the researchers. The study particularly focuses on the interconnectedness between Kornatovsky’s personal case within the Bolshevik Party and the initiation of criminal proceedings against him by the Ministry of State Security of the USSR; on the mechanisms of forming the evidentiary base during the preliminary investigation. The article also explores the role of expert commissions in the case and the significance of the examination of the historian’s scholarly works as a key procedural action. The article reveals the principles of compilation of witnesses’ testimonies and other statements during the historian’s trial. Furthermore, details of the efforts by Kornatovsky and his spouse, Maria Kornatovskaya, to appeal a guilty verdict are revealed Additionally, the article presents the outcome of the appeal in 1954, the role of the Prosecutor’s Office of the USSR, and administrative-party structures of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party during the relevant stage, as well as the rationale behind the termination of criminal prosecution against Kornatovsky.